Hakkar the Soulflayer
thumb|Hakkar the Soulflayer thumb|The Avatar of Hakkar =General Information= *Level: Boss *Location: Zul'Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale *Type: Not specified *Health : ~600,000 =Background= Hakkar is a powerful entity in the history of Azeroth. According to the Zandalar Troll Melthor, he is a Faceless One. The long centuries following the Great Sundering of the world were difficult ones for the troll race. Famine and terror were commonplace within the broken kingdoms. The Gurubashi trolls, driven to desperate ends, sought aid from ancient, mystical forces. Though both of the troll kingdoms shared a central belief in a great pantheon of primitive gods, the Gurubashi fell under the sway of the darkest one. Hakkar the Soulflayer, a vile, bloodthirsty spirit, heard the trolls' call and decided to aid them. Hakkar gave his secrets of blood to the Gurubashi and helped them extend their civilization across most of Stranglethorn Vale and certain islands of the South Seas. Though he brought them great power, Hakkar wanted more and more for his efforts. The bloodthirsty god demanded souls be sacrificed to him daily. He dreamed of gaining access to the physical world so he could devour the blood of all mortal creatures. In time the Gurubashi realized what kind of creature they had courted with -- and turned against him. The strongest tribes rose up against Hakkar and his loyal priests -- the Atal'ai. The terrible war that ensued between Hakkar's followers and the rest of the Gurubashi tribes is spoken of only in whispers. The budding empire was shattered by the magic unleashed between the angry god and his rebel children. Just as the battle seemed most hopeless, the trolls succeeded in destroying Hakkar's avatar and banishing him from the world. Even his Atal'ai priests were eventually driven back to the capital of Zul'Gurub and the swamplands of the north. Though the priests were defeated and ultimately exiled, the great troll empire collapsed upon itself. The exiled priests fled far to the north, into the Swamp of Sorrows. There they erected a great temple to Hakkar - where they could prepare for his arrival into the physical world. The great dragon Aspect, Ysera, learned of the Atal'ai's plans and smashed the temple beneath the marshes. To this day, the temple's drowned ruins are guarded by the green dragons who prevent anyone from getting in or out. However, some of the fanatical Atal'ai have survived Ysera's wrath - and recommitted themselves to the dark service of Hakkar. Their spiritual leader, Jammal'an, had what he called a prophecy. He believes the summoning of the god, Hakkar will bring the Atal'ai immortality. They even prepared a dark ritual to call the Avatar of Hakkar back into the physical world, but it was finally interrupted by a group of heroes, invading the temple. In recent times, the Atal'ai priests discovered that Hakkar's physical form could only be summoned within the ancient capital of the Gurubashi Empire, Zul'Gurub. Unfortunately, the priests have met with recent success in their quest to call forth Hakkar -- reports confirm the presence of the dreaded Soulflayer in the heart of the Gurubashi ruins. In order to quell the blood god, the trolls of the land banded together and sent a contingent of High Priests into the ancient city. Each priest was a powerful champion of the Primal Gods -- Bat, Panther, Tiger, Spider, and Snake -- but despite their best efforts, they fell under the sway of Hakkar. Now the champions and their Primal God aspects feed the awesome power of the Soulflayer. Any adventurers brave enough to venture into the foreboding ruins must overcome the High Priests if they are to have any hope of confronting the mighty blood god. The Wind Serpents are the cousins of him and their spirits are linked to him. Note: Though there is in-game text that specifically uses the words Faceless One attached to Hakkar the Soulflayer, it is speculation and not fact that he is linked with the Old Gods. This is due to context issues within the text. =Abilities = * Corrupted Blood: 875-1125 direct shadow damage plus a 200 every 2 seconds shadow DOT that hits a player and several players around. Corrupted Blood in it's previous state has become well known due to the small scale epidemic it caused. * Blood Siphon: Every 90 seconds from the time that Hakkar is pulled he will cast Blood Siphon on the entire raid, in it's base state this is a 8 second channelled drain that deals 200 damage per second and stuns, the Blood Siphon also heals Hakkar for 1000 health per second. However; if the player has been infected with Poisonous Blood (released as a cloud around the corpse of a Son of Hakkar) then the Blood Siphon changes it's effect. The stun remains however it now does 200 damage per second to Hakkar. Blood Siphon will appear as a debuff for each person affected, the number of these debuffs will remove nearly all exisiting ones. * Cause Insanity: A 10 second undispellable mind control with a 150% movement and 100% attack speed increase, this is casted approximately every 10 to 15 seconds on the person currently highest on the aggro list. While mind controlledm the person temporarily loses aggro; however will re-gain aggro once mind control expires * Enrage: After fighting for 10 minutes, Hakkar enrages greatly increases his damage output, this ability will wipe the raid. If the High Priests around Zul'Gurub are not killed before Hakkar, then he is granted several powerful abilities which combine to make the fight near impossible. *High Priestess Jeklik - 1200-2000 AoE damage + 8s silence. *High Priest Venoxis - 800 damage poison to the raid. *High Priestess Mar'li - 6 second stun and complete aggro reset. *High Priest Thekal - Frenzy, increasing attack speed by 150%. *High Priestess Arlokk - 2 second gouge (aggro wipes the main tank) Combat Strategy The fight revolves around the Blood Siphon, you need to ensure that the entire raid is poisoned by a Son of Hakkar's posion cloud before each Siphon. To enable this, you will need one person to pull the fast re-spawning Sons from the left and right platforms to the raid so it can be killed. The entire raid should get the poison from the ensuing cloud while ensuring that the entire raid is not poisoned for too long due to the damage caused. There are two common strategies for this. # Using a hunter or mage to pull an Son a few seconds before the Siphon, then the raid kill this as soon as it arrives and gets the poison. # Using a mage Or hunter to pull a Son immediatly after a Siphon (or prior to starting the fight) then to have this Son Sheeped near to the raid and killed several seconds before the Siphon is due. Hakkar himself needs to be held by 2 or 3 tanks due to him Mind Controlling the curent tank, which will cause him to switch to next person on the aggro list. When a tank is Mind Controlled, he should be sheeped by a mage to prevent him causing too much damage to the raid. This sheep should be dispellled when Mind Control fades. Additionally, due to this Mind Control it is helpful to have warriors burn their Intimidating Shout as soon as it cools down to prevent the raid being feared. Hakkar will also frequently Corrupted Blood several members of the raid doing a large amount of shadow damage. Spreading the raid to limit the number of people who can be hit can help but also causes problems collapsing back to receive the poison. The fight itself requires little dps, although there is a 10 min Enrage. Hakkar will do around 1/4 of the damage himself via Blood Siphon assuming everyone in the raid gets the Poisonous Blood each Siphon. As a worst case scenario no-more than 3 people can be without the poison, or Hakkar will heal each Siphon. This goes without saying, but if at any time you're left with one tank, and the boss isn't at very low HP, a wipe is inevitable. Reset. Hakkar's the first boss you'll come across that's untauntable, therefore it's impossible for a just-ressed tank to gain enough aggro to tank him - and, of course, he hits hard enough to make healing any randoms that get aggro during mind control a nightmare. = Notes = * Hakkar can be reset by pulling him down the stairs. Memorable Quotes: * "PRIDE HERALDS THE END OF YOUR WORLD. COME, MORTALS! FACE THE WRATH OF THE SOULFLAYER!" * "Fleeing will do you no good, mortals!" =Additional Information= Houndmaster and Soulflayer According to an interview Hakkar the Houndmaster and Hakkar the Soulflayer are two different entities: Richard A. Knaak: "Hakkar first existed in WELL OF ETERNITY, as Hakkar the Houndmaster, my creation. Blizzard must have liked the name, because they accidentally took the name afterward for the troll god. Chris Metzen apologized for the mix-up at the L.A. Festival of Books." Blizzplanet Interview Connection to real life mythology Hakkar seems to resemble the Mesoamerican diety "Quetzalcoatl" or "Kukulkan," both of which can be translated "Feathered Serpent". This fits in with certain aspects from Troll architecture and culture, which resemble those of the Aztec and and Maya, both of whom revered the Feathered Serpent. See Myth for more information. =External Links= *Thottbot *Allakhazam Category:Bosses Category:Instance Characters Category:Lore Characters Category:Lore